Just received this letter from the Attorney General’s office in response to the Michael Iaone case, whereas I informed Eric Holder that the Fresno Court system was engaged in a conspiracy to make Michael Iaone culpable for paying the back taxes of Steven V. Booth. Next step, get in touch with the FBI.

Meanwhile I believe the government might have take over Mike’s computer as someone “reads” the messages I send, but no longer responds. There is a growing mystery here. I will attempt to get to the bottom of it.

As I’ve researched this story of the tangled, deceitful, web-like lines of entrapment, which seem to have entangled the lives of quite a few Bakersfield and Fresno area residents; I think I have found the spider at the center of this web. There has been much talk in the news lately of “liberal judges,” “Activist Judges,” “Extremist Judges” and “Partisan Judges.” Yet one type of judge, which is not being spoken about, is the old-fashioned “Corrupt Judge.” To me it is the corrupt judge, the one who works for bribes, for favors, or who hands out bribes and favors to others, that is at the rotten core of what is wrong with this country’s legal system. Judge Lawrence J. O’Neil, I think, qualifies of one of the great corrupt judges of our time!

Why do I think that? The IRS case against Dr. Steven V. Booth and Michael Scott Ioane alone has shown how corrupt this judge really is. He started out by signing a vague and suspect search warrant for the IRS. The warrant was to search the premises of Dr. Booth and Mr. Ioane; it was so vague that it seemed to be an excuse to simply ransack the citizen’s homes. The homes were ransacked, money and personal property went missing and Mr. Ioane’s lawyers called them on it. Judge O’Neil was only a magistrate. You see magistrate judges have only statutory authority and if someone challenges what they do, which Ioane did, they have no authority to decide their own case, instead it must be heard by a Article Three Federal Judge. O’Neil was not legally supposed to rule on whether his own signed warrant was valid after it had been questioned. He should have recused himself. Instead, he buried the case until he was catapulted from being a magistrate, to being a fully-fledged Federal Judge after being nominated by President G.W. Bush in 2007. Oddly, the case involving his signing of a disputed search warrant as a magistrate, now came under his own jurisdiction! O’Neil should have recused himself in that case as well. This is what he did wrong, he ruled on his own search warrant as to whether it was valid or invalid just as the IRS was making their criminal case against Dr. Booth and Mr. Ioane. Evidence was then put forward by the IRS, which should never have been allowed. Talk about letting the fox guard the hen house!

Judge O’Neil then went on to become one of the most arrogant, heartless and cruel judges on the Federal Court dais. He continually handed down severe, almost medieval sentences. He quashed bills about cutting California carbon emissions in favor of the Big Oil companies. He was said by his colleagues to be an extremist judge. Yet, what he said and did to Dr. Booth’s co-defendant was indeed a crime bred out of corruption. Judge Lawrence was washing the backs of the IRS while they apparently washed his. The co-defendant was made aware by several friends and attorneys that there was a cabal of judges and lawyers in Fresno that had pretty much staked a claim on the Federal Courts. Anyone crossing this gang of corrupt personages was bound to feel their wrath. In his case, every time he tried to make a motion to save himself, Lawrence O’Neil quashed it. He would not reverse his decision on the search warrant, allowing evidence to be brought to the case that was nothing but circumstantial. “Right to a speedy trial” for Michael Scott Ioane? Denied! Then, mixing the trial of Booth with Ioane as if they had been some sort of criminal cohorts, O’Neil allowed Booth’s perjured testimony to be seen as “proof” that Mike Ioane had bilked the government out of millions of dollars! Calling Booth’s trust manager a “slick, cagey, wily con-man who was only upset over getting caught, rather than having committed a crime” he sentenced Ioane to 9 long years in Federal prison, using the IRS “$4,000,000.00 estimate” of what Booth owed them, as a basis for the harsh sentencing! Even though he knew full-well that Booth only owed $207,000, and that his tax burden had nothing to do with Michael Ioane’s case.

However, it gets worse. For Michael Ioane himself reported to me that an attorney for the court was ushered into his cell, (not into an anteroom or meeting room or other area where most such conversations take place in prison, but right in the defendant’s cell, as if he were some sort of Death Row inmate). There Mike was offered a deal. It seems that Judge Lawrence O’Neil did not really think he was guilty of conning the government. Instead, he was angry as hell that he would not deed over the properties in his portfolio back to Booth. So now, O’Neil was cutting a deal on behalf of the IRS and Booth! If Ioane would simply turn over his 5% portion of the properties, and convince the company he worked for to give over their 95%, back to Booth and the IRS he would be released. Case closed. Records expunged.

Now Michael Scott Ioane faced a real dilemma. Either do something that was patently wrong…since the IRS had convinced a jury that all the various trusts involved were “shams,” he would be signing documents that said this was correct and true, that he was a criminal and his life’s work a sham. He would be relinquishing properties, which were legally bought and paid for and mostly in the hands of a corporation he worked for, which could also be seen to be disreputable if he did as Judge O’Neil demanded. Mike would then have to try to convince his partners to do likewise. Then he would be freed. Or he could say no and spend 9 years in prison. He was put between the veritable rock and a hard place. His wife needed him out and working. His associates needed him to be out, and not only that, his reputation re-established. His kids needed him. His community needed him. He was already in jail and desperate for freedom. Yet if he did what O’Neil asked, he would be denying every principle he ever stood for or believed in.

After a long night of prayer, Mike Ioane gave his answer to his wife and to his own attorney and to O’Neil. “No deal.” He had chosen prison over lying and wrongdoing. He would not give over the properties to Booth or the IRS. Instead, he would fight them all. Now you tell me, what con-man, with a deal like that, which could free him to go about his daily confidence games, would NOT have taken the deal? Only an honest man would say “I’m staying in jail!” In the end, Judge Lawrence O’Neil’s evil plan did not work. Only because he was facing down a decent man; someone who would not roll over and play his games.

Michael Ioane was finally released on appeal. He still remains under house arrest, unable to work, to make a living, to travel or even to walk to the local store. He wears a Federally mandated ankle alarm bracelet, which the Feds want him to pay for even though they have disallowed him the right to work! They still work their evil machinations against this man who stood up to them and to the vile Judge O’Neil, who sentences men to 750 years in prison and doesn’t care if his own children choke on the noxious polluted air of California, so long as his Big Oil bedfellows are happy.

Having heard all this I realized, Judge O’Neil is the wily, cagey con-artist here. He’s the fat spider spinning the web to entrap and entangle innocent people. He does it for power and favor and money. He’s the ringleader of the Fresno/IRS gang, going after chiropractors and business managers instead of drug lords and crime king-pins. This man needs to be exposed. He’s not fit to be a judge. And really he needs to be in a cell somewhere contemplating his own failings, rather than lording it over others.

Recently a motion was drawn up for the Michael S. Ioane case that really says it all as concerns my investigation. In my last post, I noted that finally Michael Scott Ioane has been vindicated in his pursuit of justice from the Fresno District Court for Eastern California. Judge Ishii finally signed the motion to dismiss all of the IRS and Dr. Booth’s frivolous and confusing suits. Judge Ishii agrees with my investigative findings that the IRS and Booth were simply muddying the civil waters of a Real Estate case in order to give the IRS time to make a criminal case. However, in their haste, they forgot one thing. They forgot that the properties that the IRS was seeking to seize from Booth did not belong to Booth. They belonged to a trust. I will let the attorney who wrote the motion explain.

“This is an action involving a purchase of three pieces of real property, purchased by Acacia Corporate Management, LLC from Bakersfield Properties and Trust Company (a California irrevocable trust), on December 5, 2005, whose beneficiaries are the minor children of Dr. Vincent Steven Booth. The only relation to Bakersfield Properties and Trust Company that Dr. Vincent Steven Booth has is that his minor children are the owners/beneficiaries.

In the year of 2000, Bakersfield Properties and Trust Company purchased from Alpha Omega and Aligned the three separate pieces of Bakersfield real estate subject in this litigation, and the Booth’s minor children where owners of those trusts at the time. Also, Dr. Vincent Booth and his Wife Louise Booth, in 1995 entered an arrangement with their then CPA James Baker and attorney John Reedy; whereas they alienated their ownership interest in two of the subject properties in a “quit claim” deed. (5707 Murifield Drive, Bakersfield, CA and 5717 Roundup Way, Bakersfield,CA), by transferring first one to the other all ownership interest and then transferring all rights, title and interest of the two real properties into Alpha Omega Trust, an irrevocable California trust, sometime in 1995, whose beneficiaries again, were the minor children of the Booths. The property known as 1927 21st Street, Bakersfield, CA , was purchased by Aligned Enterprises Trust, also an irrevocable California trust, in 1996. At this time the Booths owned no interest in the properties or in the trusts.

As of today, no Guardian Ad Litem has been appointed to represent the minor children’s interest in the subject real properties and trusts.

Currently Mariposa Holding Inc. and Acacia Corporate Management, LLC owes Southern Financial Trust and Bakersfield Properties a combination of approximately $900,000 because of having used various purchases contract agreements, deeds of trust and promissory notes rather than a cash settlement. Mariposa Holding Inc. and Acacia Corporate Management, LLC since about 2006, have been stopped from paying the $900,000.00 owed those entities because of the wrongfully filed IRS nominee Liens, Levies and because of pending litigation not excluding this case.

The IRS justify their interference in the performance of the agreements/payment by claiming the transactions were fraudulent transfers intended to avoid paying an alleged IRS debt of Dr. Booth. The Government further argues Acacia Corporate Management, LLC does not own the real property, and most recently have claimed that Acacia Corporate Management, LLC is some sort of fake entity designed to hide Dr. Booth’s assets. These arguments are of course without foundation, preposterous and contradicted other judicial positions the government and IRS have taken, (next, if the court allows, the government will argue that Mr. Ioane is an alien from Mars, not a human being, and has no rights on the planet earth).

If the IRS would allow Mariposa Holding Inc., and Acacia Corporate Management, LLC to pay the estimated $900,000 to Southern Financial Trust and Bakersfield Properties (who are allegedly the alter egos of Dr. Booth), then Booth’s stipulated tax liability of $207,000 plus penalties and interest could be paid.

Acacia Corporate Management, LLC, Mariposa Holding Inc. and Michael Scott Ioane, prior to this litigation and prior to any of the criminal allegations, have desperately attempted to pay off the deeds of trust and promissory notes. (Alleged in this case by the IRS to be bogus), to Bakersfield Properties and Southern Financial, but, for some reason someone at the IRS refuses to allow those payments and continues with the bizarre and unfounded allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent transfer of real property, and now that since to them Acacia does not exist, what is next?

(Basically this all came about because the IRS didn’t understand that real estate can be, and often is purchased, not with cash, but with promissory notes, stocks, bonds, and trading in other types of perfectly legal financial instruments. Because the properties were not paid off fully and were held with a small amount of cash, the IRS believed that the properties were not being purchased for their full value. In other words, the IRS is not very smart in the ways of finance. All they understand is cash! Because of this, they completely screwed up a great financial deal that would in the end, have benefited the Booth’s minor children, the IRS and Booth’s tax burden all in one fell swoop! Tom.)

The attorney goes on to say:

This non-sense has gone on now for almost 6 years. The IRS placed nominee liens and levies on Mariposa Holding Inc. and Acacia Corporate Management LLC’s real property and cash making such payment impossible, just so they could prove something that did not exist. I guess this wasted time and effort does not matter, since the USA tax payer is paying the bill for this frivolous litigation, the attorneys get their federal pay check and pension while the American people stand in unemployment lines.

What the attorney does not mention, is that dissolving or even toying with a trust which is in the hands of minor children without the benefit of a Guardian ad litem to defend the children is a FELONY CRIME in the state of California. The IRS and Dr. Booth’s “nonsense” should be getting them into some really hot water right about now! You do not steal from children and get away with it. Of course, if they hire a guardian, then they are saying that the trusts are all real and above board! So they would lose their case which states the trusts are frauds…a case by the way, no one has proven. My opinion, the IRS should drop the case, drop all charges, let the bill get paid and let everyone get on with their lives.

Meanwhile the IRS continues to build bad cases against decent people with frivolous claims disregarding the laws of the State of California and Federal Law as well as abusing the civil rights of American citizens. Government salaried agents, judges and officials are simply misspending millions of dollars of tax-payer money in order to justify their jobs and astronomical salaries.

And, how the hell did Judge Lawrence O’Neil authorize a plea-bargain agreement for Dr. S. Booth that said he should dissolve trusts which did not belong to him, without the appointment of a Guardian Ad Litem? This Judge O’Neil is supposedly a graduate of Hastings Law School. He had to have known that when a trust involving minor children is involved, there has to be safeguards for those children’s rights. This is basic Law 101. Is he simply stupid, senile or criminal? I believe the latter. I believe he is corrupt and was trying to assist his various friends at the local Fresno IRS office; where one of his close, personal friends is prosecutor Mark E. Cullers. So that they all just happened to overlook the fact that four minor children were being ripped off by the government!

Recently it has been uncovered the “Fast and Furious” guns to Mexico case was completely unknown to Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder. Apparently the entire thing was devised and overseen in the Phoenix offices of the Arizona ATF! This may be what is happening in Fresno, a small team of corrupt officials lording it over the justice system for their own benefit and not letting their Washington bosses in on anything. Hopefully one of Holder’s people will be researching his name and see this blog and then someone can get to the bottom of this case. By all means the IRS must be stopped from ripping off innocent children!

Judge Lawrence Joseph O’Neil appears to be going a little OTT with regards to his sentencing alongside his ever increasingly erratic behavior, even more reason that we should be concerned about his suitability as a federal district judge.

Between the 24th December 2005 and the 24th July 2006, a string of robberies took place in Fresno and Madera. On July 24th, two individuals, Marcus Major and Jordan Huff were arrested in connection with the burglaries as a result. They were charged with the offenses on the 14th June 2007 with a variety of violations including that to interfere with commerce and brandishing and discharging firearms. In total, 61 counts of a variety of violations were made (1:07-cr-00156-LJO-1 & 1:07-cr-00156-LJO-2, Eastern District Fresno California).

Major and Huff were tried together and they were found guilty of all counts of violations. Judge Lawrence Joseph O’Neil sentenced the individuals to, 121 months for each of the conspiracy and robbery charges, to be served concurrently. A further 120 months for the discharging of a firearm, this time to be served consecutively and a further 300 months for each of the 29 discharging and brandishing counts, to be served consecutively.

Major was sentenced on a very similar basis with the total sentence for the defendants, of 8,941 months (745 years) for Jordan Huff and 8,955 months (746 years) for Marcus Major.

One of the predominant arguments by the defendants in this case was the cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment forbids some punishments from being sentenced when they are considered extreme or excessive when compared to the crime. In this instance, we must consider the crimes that Major and Huff were tried for. These were predominantly burglary, brandishing and discharging firearms. There were no human casualties in their offenses and any loss suffered was purely commercial. How on earth can Judge Lawrence O’Neil sentence these two individuals to sentences that are 10 times the life expectancy of the average human? It is hard to understand as to how individuals can be sentenced to such crazy and extreme sentences when examined with regards to the crimes that they committed.

Furthermore, Major and Huff argued that Judge Lawrence O’Neil allowed the government to present evidence of other crimes for which they were implicated, yet were not linked to the counts of burglary, brandishing and discharging firearms for which they were tried. Judge Lawrence O’Neil furthermore denied the pair their rights to the Sixth Amendment in which they have the right to be able to prepare for their trial, by allowing them no contact with anybody other than their attorneys. Thus far, we can see that Judge Lawrence O’Neil has ignored both the Eighth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment. What gives him this power? Who is he to take away the basic legal human rights as set by the United States Constitution in the United States Bill of Rights?

The defendants filed motions in regards to the inclusion of charges that were not regarded as evidence in the following cases 1:07-cr-00156-LJO-1 and 1:07-cr-00156-LJO-2 under federal rules of evidence. However, yet again Judge Lawrence O’Neil denied both motions. In closing arguments, the defendants association with street gangs was included and as such, the court abused its discretion with regards to inclusion of unlawful evidence.

What we can see here is clear evidence that Judge Lawrence O’Neil broke a variety of constitutional rules.

-Judge Lawrence O’Neil denied the defendants the right to prepare for trial as described in the sixth Amendment, and as such he violated the sixth Amendment.

-Judge Lawrence O’Neil denied two evidence based motions that were filed with regards to the inappropriate inclusion of evidence unrelated in to the current trial.

In sentencing, Judge Lawrence O’Neill stated that It shows your contempt for civilized society and I’m going to do what I need to do to take you out of society because you are not civilized. You two are terrorists in the simple meaning of that word; you terrorized your victims. You simply wanted money and it wasn’t just adult victims, there were children terrorized too. These guys were bad guys no one disagrees with that; but, Judge Lawrence O’Neil is not competent to sit as a federal judge as impartial he is simply blinded by his biased. 750 years for robberies with no injuries and no damage to property, so what does he sentence a murderer too child molester to, 100 years, 2000 years?

Judge Lawrence O’Neil talks of victims, but with regards to gratuitous violence in this case, there was none and he still felt that his 756 and 746 year sentences were fair?

OVERRULED

The only saving grace that we have in such a story is that of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who argued that there was no way of executing such punishments, as humans do not have the capacity to live 750 years and as such overturned the decisions made by the inadequately placed Judge Lawrence O’Neil, sentencing is still pending for the two.

Noonan, Circuit Judge, concurring and dissenting:

“I concur in the opinion of the court except as to the sentences of over 700 years. The court says, “No one could dispute that a sentence of almost 750 years is harsh.” No one would bother to characterize such a sentence as “harsh”. It is simply incapable of execution. No known human being has the capacity to live 700 years. No living human being is likely to live 700 years. On its face, the sentence is impossible to execute. The United States asks us to affirm this sentence. It asks us to affirm a sentence that cannot be carried out. I do not believe that we should participate in this utterly empty gesture,” he probably wanted to say utterly incompetent and stupid sentence; but, having to sound politically correct he did not.

It is clear that the words of Judge Noonan, clearly demonstrate the completely in competence of Judge Lawrence O’Neil, from our investigation this is not the first nutty decision made by Judge Lawrence O’Neil and many have been overturned. It is rare that a federal district judge is removed from office; but, congress may want to seriously consider such an action regarding this nut job, Judge Lawrence O’Neil. He is clearly a menace to society and jeopardizes the integrity of the entire judiciary.

Send your comments to John Livingston, Esq at johnlivingston2000@gmail.com and we welcome any additional case you may have regarding this Judge Lawrence O’Neil, as we are beginning a catalog of his actions for notification to congress.

The prosecuting attorney for the IRS case against Mike Ioane, the one who got him thrown in prison, was one Mr. Mark Cullers, assistant U.S. Attorney at the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Cullers has recently been involved in several cases where he seems to find people like pediatricians or chiropractors and makes criminals out of them. he spins a case against them, saying they defrauded the government or impeded some investigation the IRS had trumped up. Cullers seems to be “making his bones” in the Dept. of Justice by busting common citizens and then trying to toss them in prison while he collects the money he claims is owed in back taxes. All well and good, if he did not continually lie about how much money is really owed, and about how guilty the parties he attacks really are…in the case of Mike Ioane they aren’t guilty of anything at all. Mark E. Culler’s main claim to fame seems to be prosecuting cases against fairly harmless individuals with the tag-line “No one is above the law!” Except that Mark Cullers acts above the law at all times. And no one is investigating him.
What he did by trying to put Mike Ioane in prison over some inane squabble between the IRS and Dr. Stephen Booth and his wife, (whom they claimed owed them 2.3 million!) goes far beyond the spirit or letter of the law. It seems the Old IRS, the ones who used to love to drive “tax-evaders” into ruin, prison or suicide (the ones we thought Clinton had gotten rid of…) are back. I explain the details of the Booth case and how it entrapped Michael Ioane in my other blog…
Using techniques of threats and cajoling agents of the IRS were able to get Dr. Booth, a chiropractor in Bakersfield, CA, to perjure himself in a court of law and recant previous testimony given in the same court. That initial testimony had absolved Mike Ioane of all wrong-doing. When the case came before Judge Lawrence at the 9th District court of Eastern CA, suddenly Dr. Booth reversed his testimony. Suddenly his tax situation went from 2.3 million to 1.3 million, then down to 207K. Booth condemned Ioane as some sort of personal Rasputin…steering the poor Chiropractor and his wife by some magical means, to make up fake trusts, and hide the properties the IRS wanted, even before they had met him! This, all in order to conceal these tasty morsels from the righteous eyes of the IRS!
Booth and the IRS now contended that it was Booth, being duped and manipulated by Ioane, who set up a series of sham trusts. This was the seedy case Mark E. Cullers brought to bear against Mike Ioane, a case which must have cost the US government quite a bit of tax-payer money. Like “Fast and Furious” and other Dept. of Justice “stings,” it was neither a sting, nor just and in the end it was a failure. It was just another case of ineptitude, cover-up and dubious legal practices on the part of the Justice Dept.
During the case Mark Culler lied to the Grand jury, lied to Judge Lawrence, held back pertinent information from the court, caused Booth to perjure himself and got a conviction of an innocent man based on these lies and prevarications. Culler also insisted that Mike Ioane was in arrears on his back taxes to the tune of 60K! (which is proof of nothing and should not have influenced the case in any instance…)When in fact he knew Ioane owed them nothing. He was able to use his influence with the court to throw a man in Federal Lock-up and nearly ruin his life. All for what? Ioane has been released from prison based on the fact that had he been given a fair trial, he could have proven that he in no way had ever helped the Booths do anything but manage their properties and trusts, which was the job they hired him for. Why would Cullers and the Obama run Dept. of Justice do this? Well it could be because Mike Iaone was the author of the seminal book, The Boston Tea Party, which helped launch the Tea Party political revolt. It may be that the Justice dept. has a grudge against people who think that it is politicians and banks and the government itself who are working “above the law” and outside the bounds of the Constitution.
I will deal with this subject more in my next post.

In the on-going case against the IRS, the facts assert that Mike Ioane was being prosecuted in a selective and vindictive manner based on “individious discriminatory animus” (Latin for being singled out because of personal animosity). He goes on to state that he feels the prosecutor in his case (i.e. Mark Cullers), holds personal animosity towards him for the reason that Mike Ioane was involved in “protected First Amendment and political activity.” Or to put it more bluntly the US government tried to jail him for two reasons. One is that he basically wrote the book that established the now well-known Tea Party. His book: The Boston Tea Party was written and published in 1998. People began connecting with Ioane in a political dialogue in 2000. It became the foundation for some of the political ideals and platforms of the Tea Party which arose during the housing crisis of 2007/2008. It seems, if one looks into the facts of Mike Ioane’s battle with the IRS, this publication factors in greatly as being one of the reasons the U.S. Government wants Ioane in jail and his free speech stifled.

The basic legal idea of Selective and Vindictive Prosecution is that, though a prosecutor has a lot of lee-way in bringing just about anyone before a court to be prosecuted, there are certain things which cannot and must not apply when prosecution is begun. #1. Is that race, creed, color, national origin or gender/sexual preference cannot be a prime factor for bringing someone up on charges. #2. Political affiliations, and the fact that a person has written a book, published and article or otherwise spoken out against the government is not an excuse to prosecute someone either…especially if the material is not discussing any treasonous acts or asking people to break any laws or commit any acts of violence, etc. {Bordenkircher, 434 U.S. at 364, including the exercise of constitutional rights. Goodwin, 457 U.S. at 372}.

Ioane’s Boston Tea Party book was more of a treatise on how to protect one’s assets and property from government pilfering. It explained things like charitable trusts, blind trusts, tax havens and other things like using the already extent tax-loopholes within the tax codes to keep one’s property safe from exorbitant or unwarranted taxes. It was a How-To book, not a political manifesto. Many of these various asset protection theories are in use by the very rich and have always been used to good effect by many well-known upstanding U.S. citizens. There is no law that says you cannot make it hard for the government to take your property. However Ioane now offered this information to the masses so that even “the little guy” can now form a protective trust. (My 75 year old mother is doing that as we speak). And the government of the United States under both the Republicans and the Democrats, have resented anyone telling us how to prevent the government from abusing us or stealing from us.

The second reason the IRS was upset enough to secure a criminal prosecution in what amounted to nothing more than a personal tax case by Dr. S.V. Booth, Chiropractor, is that Mike Ioane also sued the govt. twice and was in the process of winning those suits when the IRS claimed he had committed a crime against them. The IRS is notorious for not liking it when people win suits against them, which from the look of things, happens about 80% of the time. The IRS isn’t very good at defending themselves against lawsuits. So they resort to other measures. Like trying to lock people up for no good reason. Seems in this case they couldn’t even do that right.

At the time of this writing Mike had already served time in the Lompoc Federal Prison Camp for alleged tax fraud. He had been released in 2011 pending appeal; The Ninth Circuit Court issued very strong language indicating that Ioane would be successful upon completion of his appeal. Basically overruling Judge Lawrence O’Neil’s harsh sentence and ordering Ioane released. Also, according to law he should not have been sentenced until a “monetary amount owed” had been figured by the IRS which Dr. Booth (not Ioane), would have to pay. No such amount was ever offered to the court, because the IRS didn’t know who owed what to whom or how much! His release from Federal custody on these grounds was unprecedented. When the Feds lock someone up, they almost invariably stay locked up. Now they are scrambling to make a new case because Ioane has once again embarrassed them by getting his appeal heard and a release granted.

The point of the matter is this: Mike Ioane was singled out and brought up on charges by a government hell bent on pilfering private property and putting the man who wrote the book on the Tea Party in jail, so as to prevent publication of any other materials they did not approve of. This is called Tyranny. Exactly what the Boston Tea Party fought against in 1773 and what the new Tea Party is fighting against today.

Everyone in this country is guaranteed equal treatment under our laws. That means one cannot prosecute someone simply because they don’t like their politics or their business. Still it is nearly impossible for a person to overcome a government prosecution based on Selective and Vindictive Prosecution motion because a person has to prove that the prosecution is in fact, abrogating their rights or picking on them because of their color, sex, age, etc. Usually this type of motion is dismissed out of hand by most judges because there is simply too much of a grey area involved. However in this case the facts would seem to indicate that indeed, Mike Ioane was selected out of a host of other people under similar threat of prosecution by the IRS, solely because he was the writer of a politically charged book and fought back against IRS tyranny in a court of law.

When the government convicted Ioane of a major felony fraud, this put him into a new kind of jeopardy. According to the Patriot Act any person found guilty of a misdemeanor or felony crime, said person can considered a “terrorist.” A terrorist suspect can be detained indefinitely without trial. He can be “disappeared,” so that no one, friends or relatives will ever hear from him again. He can be held in prisons in foreign countries and have no access to an attorney or even a fair trial. Suddenly free speech rights, in fact all civil rights are completely torn from a citizen and being an American becomes meaningless. One may as well be a Serbian or an Afghan. You can be thrown in a dark hole and forgotten. Thankfully, though the government accused Ioane publicly of being a con-man and a criminal, Ioane has many friends that vouched for his character. Only the judge was able to see who those people were.

Presently Ioane and his attorney have actually called for the prosecutors and instigators of the case against him, to be subpoenaed before the court so he might prove Selective and Vindictive Prosecution. Turning the tables on them, he determined that his accusers should be seen as abusers. His list is as follows:

Ioane’s attorney wants charges brought against this group of almost untouchable IRS agents, attorneys and court officials which, should such a case be heard by the court, might shake the Fresno court and perhaps the U.S. Justice and Treasury departments to their very foundations.

The charges include: Failure of the IRS to remove liens from properties which they did not have legal right to seize. The IRS producing and working under wrongful and illegal search warrants, signed by a judge who was not empowered ot authorize a warrant, and said warrants used to search private residences and abscond with personal money and valuables. (For which Ioane sued them). The IRS’ constantly assailed the court with motions to dismiss all of Ioane’s lawsuits and motions against them based on the fact that, well, they are the IRS and can do as they please to whom they please for whatever reasons they please. The IRS, having gone through several civil cases against Ioane never once indicated that there was any evidence or even allegations of criminal wrongdoing on his part. Yet they used all these cases against him as evidence in their prosecution that he was obstructing them and attempting to defraud the government! They did this because they lost most of the cases. They were so angry that one agent complained anonymously to the court that “TP (Ioane: The Plaintiff) files frivolous lawsuits against IRS employees so I need to document my case history accurately.” The IRS never once looked into any of the violations reported to them by Ioane, which is why he felt compelled to sue them. All this was done well before the criminal case was instigated.

The facts suggest that Ioane was a constant thorn in the side of the IRS and the courts and that they decided to prosecute him, not because of any real crime, but simply because they hated what he was doing to them. The IRS was so aggravated they even accused Ioane of “reading a speech document;” (in this case it was a document dealing with protecting one’s assets…) as if reading anything about one’s own business was somehow prohibited by law! This is an indicator that the government regarded asset protection pamphlets as they would some politically charged treatise on how to build a homemade bomb! It was certain the IRS and Treasury wanted to abrogate Ioane’s rights and make him stop thinking, acting or even reading for his own benefit. The IRS visited this egregious tyranny against his freedom of speech, but not upon any of the others, they threatened or cajoled.

Ioane’s attorney goes on to claim that the government, as well as the courts are upset with the Boston Tea Party Book, and has punished the defendant, profiling him as the creator and leader of the Tea Party political movement. The Boston Tea Party book was published in 1998 and defendant started the genesis of the Tea Party movement in year 2000. No doubt that the result being spread far and wide has caused Ioane and those associated with him concern and political motivation to put this defendant away or to stop him from furthering the Constitutional objective of the party.

Ioane’s attorney further claims that the IRS under the directive of Mark Cullers threatened and brow-beat witnesses to make false claims and deliver false testimony in order to entrap Ioane in crimes he did not commit. The IRS claims that he was setting up “sham” trusts to hide money for his clients, or to sway his clients to make claims and proceed against the government in order to defraud them, are completely spurious. Ioane had been paid to work as a trust manager for a group of trustees for the Booth’s trusts. The Booths were not involved in said trusts any longer. The trustees and their attorneys were giving Ioane his orders, not the other way around. Yet the IRS insisted Ioane was some evil-mastermind criminal who was into vague money-laundering schemes and forcing others to defraud the government. Even at his trial, they brought up no clear evidence of such a crazy claim. The IRS relied solely on the hearsay testimony of false witnesses whom they themselves had paid off through plea bargaining agreements, or on whom they used strong-arm tactics. Iaone’s attorney further indicts the U.S. Dept. of Justice of having full knowledge of Cullers’ machinations and who might have been helping Cullers secure a conviction based on false evidence and hearsay from witnesses who were being manipulated by the State.

A list of the various Booth Trustees is as follows:

Lorien McCan

Margaret Squires

Dr.John James Inis jr.

Jean Annette Liascos

Dr. Thomas T. Rios

It should be noted here that every one of these people colluded with the IRS by perjuring themselves on the stand, claiming they had never had meetings. That they had done everything he demanded they do by some form of osmosis. That they had signed documents at Dr. Booth’s behest that they did not understand or had even read. And they claimed they were all working under the influence of Dr. Booth to hide the Bakersfield Properties from the government tax-man! Dr. Booth of course in perjured testimony said that Mike Ioane was his “Svengali” and had made him do everything he did, even before he ever heard of Ioane! Quite a trick!

Now a “Trustee” is supposed to be a trustworthy, smart and responsible individual entrusted with the Trust monies and properties, which they hold (in this case for the Booth’s children), until which time these trusts are turned over to the beneficiaries. Does this sound like a group of smart, erudite and capable individuals? Should such stupid people, bending to the will of the person they hired, be allowed to be in such a position of trust? These are people who don’t read documents, who sign the papers without reading them, who have no idea what a trust is or how it functions. One, Dr. Thomas T. Rios had previously been investigated by the IRS and found to have overcharged his patients through various programs like insurance and Medicare and taken the ill-gotten gains and himself stashed them in sham trusts! He had also been extorting money from Dr. Booth, his employer, because he was going to tell the IRS that Booth had sham trusts and hidden money as well! He was more than willing to perjure himself to get money from Dr. Booth. To keep the IRS from auditing him Booth paid him! $30,000 a month! (He should have had him arrested, but that’s another story).Yet Dr. Rios was one of the trustees of one of Booth’s trusts! Rios employed Ioane. Not the other way around. This criminal was running the trust, not Ioane. So you have a pack of ner-do-wells and a criminal extortionist in charge of Booths’ trusts…all suddenly pointing the finger at Mike Ioane. Seems a little too pat, doesn’t it? Sounds like a case of the criminal blaming the victim.

Ioane’s attorney also calls out a list of other people who were a part of the case against him. These were people who were also abused by the IRS. Each one was directed by Mark Cullers and his team of thugs to libel Ioane and to further perjure themselves, lying to judge and jury about their own dealings in business, medical practices, and finances, because they were terrified of going up against the IRS. There are indications that some of these “witnesses” and others under the scrutiny of the IRS may have made pay-offs to certain agents, in order to garner preferential treatment, for certainly not one of them is being prosecuted for anything, even though the IRS threatened each of them in some way with prosecution or action against their financial security. It seems that the IRS wanted to make Mike Ioane out to be a “Big Fish” in an organized criminal conspiracy to defraud them, without one shred of solid evidence that there was even a pond for these fish to swim around in (i.e. a massive criminal conspiracy to defraud the IRS), and without convicting one of the “little fish” for anything more than failing to pay a tax burden.

This list of others involved in the case are as follows:

1. Real Estate Developer Bob Bell. For a long time the IRS interviewed him and apparently threatened him with audits and prosecution, prior to the indictment of Booth and Ioane. He was continually informed by IRS agents that he was involved in money laundering, tax evasion, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy with Booth and the trustees we named.

2. Attorney Michael Mears. Wworked for Bob Bell and also worked with Attorney John Reedy, since about 2002 or earlier regarding the Treble LLC investment and real estate development, which involved Southern Financial Services, Bakersfield Properties and Trust Company, and Treble LLC.

3. Attorney Steve Dakes of Dake-Braun-Monje. These folks reviewed the trusts and never informed Ioane there was a problem. Attorney Steven Dake was one of the Attorneys representing the above referenced trusts subject of the indictment.

5. Certified Public Accountant Clark Hurst of Bakersfield. Who stated to Ioane that Mr. Booth had employed his services since 2005 and is currently using the services of Mr. Hurst. Ioane had heard Mr. Hurst state that nothing was wrong with how Mr. Booth operated his business using various entities and corporations and that he, Clark Hurst took his instructions from Attorney John Reedy.

6. Attorney Michael Kia. Wrote letters to the IRS setting up appointments for defendant Booth. He never told Ioane that defendant Booth was committing any crimes and he would discuss Booths IRS disputes in detail with Ioane.

7. Attorney John Reedy. Defendant Steven Booth’s general counsel and corporate attorney, created and managed the Booth Corporations and trusts, wrote letters to the IRS and Inspector general regarding the allegations in the current indictment several years prior to any indictment being returned. Attorney John Reedy was in continual communication with Special agents at the IRS office and the AUSA regarding the alleged illegally created entities and even wrote communications indicating that he created and managed those entities. Dr. Thomas Rios, (who plead guilty to tax evasion, unrelated to Booth entities and got probation), Margaret Squires, Dr. John James Inis Jr., Jean Annette Liascos, Dr. Loren McCan, were all trustees of Booth’s and Reedy’s created trusts. Assuredly if these people had conspired to hide properties, wouldn’t the IRS want to prosecute them all?

8. Attorney Mark Lane. Mr. Lane contacted AUSA office after Steve Booth’s home was raided in March of 2006. Ioane recalls that he informed the IRS that the raid had no merit and that his client’s rights were being violated.

9. Attorney Eric Fogderude, is more than directly involved since he worked with defendant Steven Booth regarding a civil contempt matter, (specifically related to each and every allegation of the indictment, in 2005.

In the end not one of these people were ever prosecuted or even as vigorously investigated as was Michael Ioane. Not one was accused of collusion, or tax-evasion, or conspiracy to hide properties. Mr. Bell even claimed that he had given the Federal agents over $400,000, (subsequently this money has gone missing and the agent that took it, Michael Hoos, now under investigation). It is my own conclusion that indeed Michael Ioane was selected to be prosecuted for political reasons. I think especially for the reason that he instigated law suits that embarrassed and tied the hands of the government and courts in their headlong rush to find a crime that was not committed by criminals which did not exist and to steal properties which did not rightly belong to them in order to pay a alleged tax-burden that was completely made up out of the whole cloth. To the government Mr. Ioane is an irritant. So therefore by their logic, he must be guilty of…something.

Just like the badly planned and executed sales of guns to the Mexican Drug Cartels by Federal agents called Operation Fast And Furious, this foray into crime stopping did not work out well for the Obama Administration. They were seeking to trace the guns and entrap the cartels in what became a debacle when they realized they had no real way to track the weapons, and worse, said weapons were later used in the killing of a border patrol agent! This Selective and Vindictive Prosecution of one man who wrote a book the government doesn’t like, is another example of a badly planned, executed and expensive Federal operation that has lead nowhere. They have produced nothing but an opinion that some crime was committed by someone somewhere…but apparently they have yet to determine for sure what went down. So they made up a story, used tax-payer funds to play pretend with the California and Federal court system, and hurt a lot of innocent people in their little game of corruption and collusion. In order to protect their jobs and reputations they are continuing to try to make bogus cases against Booth and Ioane. This is just another Obama Administration bad idea in a growing list of bad ideas.

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Friends of Michael S. Ioane is a blog for postings from various authors. We are dedicated to news and information regarding how the Justice Department aids and abets the IRS in criminal activities with special emphasis on the Eastern District Court of California.
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